East Star Resources

Two world-class partners; one strong investment case.

Good Morning Team.

There are very few times in this space where you can point to a company and say, with conviction, that the stars are aligned.

That the assets are real. That the jurisdiction is good. That the partners are credible. That its commodities are in structural demand. That the deals have been structured intelligently. That the management are technically literate and have moved fast.

That - while there is significant risk compared to safer investments - the investment is strong on a sector comparison.

East Star Resources has all this going for it, and more.

Let’s dive in.

Jurisdiction First

Kazakhstan I think needs looking at before anything else.

You guys know Botswana. Namibia. Nevada.

The Pilbara.

You don’t know Kazakhstan.

It’s one of the largest countries in the world by land area — ninth globally, larger than the entirety of Western Europe — and sits on top of some of the most extraordinary mineral wealth on the planet.

This is not a recent discovery.

The Soviet Union spent decades systematically mapping, drilling and quantifying it - and left behind a geological database of pretty significant depth — millions of metres of drillhole data, thousands of geochemical surveys, detailed lithological maps — sitting dormant, but partially digitised and awaiting the application of modern exploration techniques and Western capital markets.

Kazakhstan is the world’s number one in global uranium production, supplying over 40% of the world’s needs.

It produces 22 of the 36 minerals identified in the UK’s Critical Minerals Strategy as vital, including uranium, titanium, silicon and rhenium, and is a top-ten copper and zinc exporter.

It ranks third in the world in copper production and fifth in gold.

These are operating, running, producing rankings, with world-scale mines already in production.

The mining belt in the east of the country — the Rudny Altai — is one of the great Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide provinces on earth.

It stretches across Kazakhstan and into Russia and hosts, on the Kazakhstani side alone, a string of deposits that would be headline news in any other jurisdiction: Glencore’s Ridder mine at 225 million tonnes, Kaz Minerals’ Artemyevsky at 51 million tonnes, Nikolaevsky at 40 million tonnes and Irtyshsky at 30 million tonnes.

These are world-scale assets that have been in operation for decades.

South and west of the Rudny Altai, the Balkash-Ili arc spans an enormous tract of central Kazakhstan and represents a different geological setting — one that geologists are now recognising as closely analogous to some of the world’s most productive porphyry copper-gold systems.

The Macquarie Arc in New South Wales, Australia, is the benchmark comparison: it hosts Cadia-Ridgeway (over 30 million ounces of gold equivalent) and North Parkes (a world-class copper-gold porphyry).

The Balkash-Ili arc has barely been drilled by modern methods. The potential is enormous, and multiple companies — including some of the world’s largest miners — are now paying attention.

This is the geological context.

But geology alone doesn’t explain why Kazakhstan is strategically important right now. For that, you need to understand the geopolitics.

As I have been at pains to remind you all, metals are real the bottleneck for artificial intelligence - and for economies generally as electrification continues to rise.

The world is in the middle of a scramble for critical minerals the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the post-war race for uranium.

The energy transition — electric vehicles, grid-scale battery storage, offshore wind, solar — requires copper in quantities that existing and planned mine supply cannot meet.

AI data centres require copper for cooling and power infrastructure. Defence investment, rising across NATO and allied nations, requires copper, zinc and a long list of other metals.

The supply side of the copper market is constrained: major mines are aging - four have ceased production in the past 12 months alone - grades are declining, new discoveries are becoming rarer and more expensive to develop, and the permitting timelines in traditional jurisdictions like the United States average close to thirty years from discovery to production.

Even in copper-rich Chile, where new projects valued in the billions are planned, most will not boost output until at least 2029. Against this backdrop, the combination of proven geology, low operating costs, streamlined permitting and active government support that Kazakhstan offers is becoming uniquely valuable.

Kazakhstan’s government is actively seeking joint ventures with foreign companies to exploit untapped mineral resources, with a focus on rare earth and other clean energy metals, and has launched a range of initiatives to improve the investment climate, streamline legislation, and promote the use of cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence and aero-geophysical surveys.

Western powers have recognised this.

The EU and Kazakhstan endorsed a Partnership Roadmap for 2025-2026 at the first ever EU-Central Asia Summit, building on their 2022 MoU on a strategic partnership in raw materials, batteries and renewable hydrogen, with a €3 million EU-funded project implemented through the EBRD already underway.

The UK signed a critical minerals agreement with Kazakhstan in early 2026, with the government identifying Kazakhstan as a key partner in its strategy to ensure no more than 60% of its supply of any single critical mineral comes from one country.

The United States has signed a similar MoU.

The practical result of all this is that Kazakhstan is not just a great place to find minerals but increasingly a great place to sell them, develop them with Western capital, and operate under a framework aligned with the interests of the world’s major mineral consumers.

The mining code is modelled on Western Australia’s — one of the most functional and investor-friendly regulatory frameworks in the world — but without the complication of Native Title.

(I know. We’ve all been there).

Licences in many cases are awarded through a first-come-first-served application system, which rewards technically competent and well-organised explorers who do their homework.

The government at both national and regional levels has been consistently described by management as supportive and engaged. Roads, rail, power and water infrastructure built during the Soviet era provides a ready-made foundation for development projects that would face decades of permitting and billions in infrastructure spend in most other parts of the world.

And then there’s the economics of actually operating in Kazakhstan.

The country’s copper and uranium mines are consistently among the world’s lowest cost producers on the C1 cost curve. This reflects low labour costs, high ore grades in many operations, existing infrastructure and an energy cost structure that benefits from the country’s own significant hydrocarbon and power generation resources.

For a copper project being brought into production, Kazakhstan’s cost environment can make the difference between a marginal operation and a highly profitable one.

The mining sector accounts for 29% of Kazakhstan’s industrial output — second only to the oil sector — and employs over hundreds of thousands of people, with total output reaching roughly $34.1 billion in 2025 and capital investment increasing 20% year-on-year - driven by foreign direct investment doubling compared to prior years.

That output is 12% of the country’s GDP and 33% of exports. And the labour pool is both sophisticated and ready to work.

This is not a frontier jurisdiction - it’s a mature, productive world-scale mining country that is currently underweighted in Western capital market portfolios for reasons of unfamiliarity rather than substance.

That gap between perception and reality is where your alpha lives.

As for copper and gold themselves? I’ve covered these two exhaustively in the past. Both are close to record highs as predicted, and both have further to run.

Company Background

East Star Resources was founded to pursue copper and gold exploration and development in Kazakhstan.

The current share capital stands at a little under 550 million shares in issue following the conversion of FTSE 100 Endeavour Mining’s CLN in February 2026.

Endeavour is the largest single shareholder, which holds 14.3% of the company. The board collectively holds around 12%. Warrants, management options, and long-term incentive plan awards account for approximately 5.4% of the diluted share count.

The board is small and tight.

Non-Executive Chairman Sandy Barblett is a London-based corporate financier with long experience in mining and metals, and serves as a director of several other listed companies and was a co-founder of Capital Metals plc.

CEO Alex Walker combines banking and corporate finance experience with operational mining knowledge, having co-founded ScandiVanadium and accumulated over fifteen years in mining finance and management. He holds an MSc in Mineral and Energy Economics, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, and is a former Captain in the Australian Army Reserves.

Technical Director Chris Van Wijk is the geological backbone of the operation — an experienced exploration geologist with a Masters in Ore Deposit Geology from the University of Western Australia and prior joint venture management and project evaluation experience at BHP, IAMGOLD, First Quantum Minerals, and Fortescue Metals Group.

Anthony Eastman is the Non-Exec and London-based accountant, a partner at Orana, member of the CAANZ and ICAEW, with 20 years of financial management and corporate advisory experience including prior roles at Ernst & Young and CalEnergy Gas.

And in May 2026, Sonia Scarselli was appointed as director representative of Endeavour Mining — she is currently Endeavour’s Executive Vice President of Exploration, formerly VP of BHP Exploration and founder of BHP’s Xplor programme.

Yeah that’s right.

The person who founded BHP’s accelerator is on board.

The company raised £2.4 million across late 2025 — £1.8 million from Endeavour’s strategic investment and £600,000 from a retail offer and subscription — which, combined with the external funding from both Xinhai and Endeavour for exploration and development activities, means the company is better capitalised relative to its activity level than almost any other junior miner of comparable size.

Strategy One — VMS Copper Belt

The Rudny Altai VMS belt has been producing for more than two centuries.

The deposits formed in the Devonian period — roughly 360-420 million years ago — when the region was an active volcanic arc environment.

Hot, mineral-laden hydrothermal fluids vented through the ocean floor, mixing with cold seawater and precipitating massive accumulations of metal sulphides — copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold — in lenses and sheets that can extend hundreds of metres in strike length and reach enormous grades and tonnages.

The Rudny Altai contains two linear metallogenic subzones extending in a northwesterly direction, with the main subzone containing two-thirds of the belt’s deposits, three-quarters of the Zn, Pb, Cu reserves and four-fifths of the Au and Ag.

The belt is one of the best studied VMS systems in the world simply because of the scale and number of its deposits, and modern exploration in the region has consistently identified additional mineralisation adjacent to and between known deposits.

The geology is fertile, the system is active over a very large area, and the infrastructure to process and ship ore is already in place.

East Star’s VMS assets sit within this belt, in the East Kazakhstan region, surrounded by operating mines and processing facilities.

Verkhuba: Funded Mine

The Verkhuba copper deposit was identified by East Star in January 2023 following a helicopter electromagnetic survey that outlined conductor anomalies, a detailed review of historical Soviet drilling data, and the subsequent discovery that a substantial copper-lead-zinc deposit had been partially characterised by Soviet-era geologists and had then sat forgotten for 30 years.

East Star secured the licence, drilled to verify and expand the resource, and in 2024 published a JORC Inferred Resource of 20.3 million tonnes at 1.16% copper, 1.54% zinc and 0.27% lead. This is a material copper deposit by any standard — the contained copper alone represents over 235,000 tonnes of metal at JORC standard.

The deposit sits within a belt that includes some of the world’s most productive VMS mines, and the infrastructure position is inarguably exceptional.

Within 70 kilometres of site there’s a Kaz Minerals concentrator with 800,000 tonnes per annum of spare processing capacity, a Glencore concentrator and smelter at Ridder, roads, power and water already connected up, and rail, and an international airport.

The capital cost of developing Verkhuba is much lower than you might think given this pre-existing infrastructure — and explains why a $65 million development cost for a mine capable of producing over 10,000tpa of copper equivalent is credible rather than optimistic.

The key development event was the formalisation in March 2026 of a binding Joint Venture Agreement with Hong Kong Xinhai Mining Services, building on the Heads of Agreement signed in December 2025.

The deal structure is, for East Star shareholders, essentially perfect. Xinhai funds 100% of everything from initial resource definition drilling through to mine commissioning and production, in exchange for earning up to 70% of a joint venture company.

East Star is fully carried — it contributes no further capital — and retains 30% of a producing mine upon commissioning.

The earn-in follows five stages:

$1.5 million for 15% (resource definition drilling), feasibility study for 20%, detailed engineering design for 30%, equipment transfer for 51%, and project commissioning for the full 70%.

Again - Xinhai’s estimated total investment is $65 million. The target production is 1 MILLION tpa of processing capacity. Drilling to inform the feasibility study is starting now.

This mine is in a safe pair of hands.

For context, Xinhai has completed more than 2,500 mine design and research and equipment supply projects- and over 600 EPC+M+O projects, in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide.

It’s a major industrial firm with the engineering capacity, equipment manufacturing capability and project management infrastructure to actually build and run a mine in Kazakhstan within the timelines proposed.

Alex recently visited Xinhai’s facilities in Yantai (China) and noted that the company is currently manufacturing and installing another processing plant in Kazakhstan with a development timeline of less than 12 months.

The December 2025 and year-end drilling programme at Verkhuba itself delivered some decent results.

Deep holes confirmed mineralisation at depth — including 17.9 metres at 0.66% zinc and 0.10% copper from 307 metres, 4.4 metres at 0.86% zinc from 329 metres, and a shallow 1-metre intersection at 0.81% copper.

Importantly, the drilling also identified lenses and stringer veinlets of sulphides throughout the core that provide evidence of massive sulphide source material at depth, not yet intersected by drilling.

A ground electromagnetic survey is planned for 2026 to directly target this potential massive sulphide body — which, if found, could materially upgrade the resource.

The 2023 drilling that established the JORC resource included some impressive near-surface intersections:

VU_23_DD_001 with 2.9 metres at 2.07% copper equivalent from 19.4 metres and 15.0 metres at 1.56% copper equivalent from 27.4 metres; VU_23_DD_002 with 11.8 metres at 1.41% copper equivalent from 171.0 metres; and VU_23_DD_003 with 2.4 metres at 2.45% copper equivalent from 74.0 metres.

These are the kinds of intersections that justify a development commitment.

Rulikha: Optionality Play

Rulikha sits 33 kilometres northwest of Verkhuba within the same VMS belt and remains 100% owned by East Star.

In November 2025, the company published an independent JORC-compliant Exploration Target for the Soviet-era deposit, modelling between 15-23 million tonnes at 1-2% copper, with an upper limit of 23 million tonnes at 2.4% copper equivalent.

At the upper limit, that’s over 550,000 tonnes of contained copper equivalent — nearly double the copper equivalent metal of Verkhuba.

Mineralisation begins from approximately 30 metres depth, implying a very low strip ratio for open-pit mining. The deposit has multiple payable metals — copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver — with the upper limit of the Exploration Target including 222,000 ounces of gold, 345,000 tonnes of zinc, and 11 million ounces of silver alongside the copper.

Rail access is within 2 kilometres of the deposit and multiple concentrators are within trucking distance.

The independent consultant’s recommendations to convert the Exploration Target to a JORC Mineral Resource are straightforward: verification and twin drilling of Vein 1, infill drilling to confirm continuity, density measurements, metallurgical sampling and regulatory approval for water-protection areas around a nearby settlement.

The settlement and water infrastructure proximity is a real permitting challenge but one that should be navigable with the right community and regulatory engagement.

Remember, these people want these jobs.

The December 2025 drilling at Rulikha North, 1.6km north of the deposit itself, produced highly encouraging results.

One drill hole intersected 120 metres of disseminated sulphides including 90 metres at greater than 20% pyrite, plus stringer veinlets with zinc-lead mineralisation at depth: 350-392 metres at 0.5% lead, 0.8% zinc and 339 parts per million copper.

The interpretation by the geological team is that a large 1.5 by 1.0 kilometre hydrothermal alteration cell has been confirmed — the chemical and mineralogical footprint of a VMS hydrothermal system — with the source of the sulphides not yet intersected.

The stringer zones and alteration patterns observed are classic proximal indicators in VMS geology (you’re close to the massive sulphide body but haven’t found it yet).

The 2026 ground electromagnetic programme is designed to find it.

When the historic Soviet drilling within the newly awarded Rulikha North licence was reviewed, it included some serious intersections: 11.4 metres at 9.8% zinc, 3.1% copper, and 1.1% lead from 196.6 metres; 6.9 metres at 17.6% zinc, 1.0% copper, and 3.3% lead from 237.4 metres; and 11.2 metres at 5.5% zinc from 236.0 metres.

These kinds of grades make VMS deposits economically lucrative — and they sit within East Star’s licensed ground.

The Talovskoye West target, a third VMS prospect within the same licence package, produced a minor mineralised interval from 2025 drilling — 0.8 metres at 0.8% zinc, 0.37% lead and 0.3% copper from 265 metres — within a breccia intersection with minor alteration.

The company views this anomaly as unresolved as the footwall alteration pattern typical of VMS proximity was not intersected, suggesting the drill hole was too far from the source. Additional ground EM is planned to better target any massive sulphide body before further drilling.

Strategy Two — Porphyry Gold

The second strategy is structurally different but potentially much higher impact.

East Star holds three porphyry and epithermal exploration licences in the Karaganda region of central Kazakhstan — Snowy, Piket and Judzha (now being relinquished).

These sit within the Balkash-Ili arc.

Before discussing the individual targets, it’s worth explaining in greater depth why porphyry copper-gold and epithermal gold systems are so valuable, and why the Balkash-Ili arc in particular is such a compelling exploration address.

Porphyry copper-gold deposits form when large volumes of magmatic-hydrothermal fluid, driven by intrusive igneous activity deep in the crust, rise through fractures and interact with surrounding rocks.

The result is typically a large, low-to-moderate grade deposit of copper and gold that can be economically mined at vast scale — the great porphyries of South America, like Escondida in Chile for example, contain hundreds of millions of tonnes of ore and have been in production for decades.

At the upper end of the scale, these are among the most valuable mineral deposits on Earth.

Associated with porphyry systems, and typically found above and around them, are epithermal gold deposits — higher grade, more focused gold (and silver) deposits formed when the hydrothermal fluids rise to the near-surface environment, mix with groundwater, cool and then precipitate precious metals in veins, breccias and stockworks.

The most well-known examples — Round Mountain in Nevada (20 million ounces), Silicon/Merlin in Nevada (16 million ounces), Fruta del Norte in Ecuador (14 million ounces), Cadia-Ridgeway (see below, 30 million gold equivalent ounces) — are where our blue sky could be.

The Macquarie Arc in New South Wales is the geological benchmark that East Star and Endeavour are explicitly invoking for the Balkash-Ili belt.

It formed in a similar tectonic setting — subduction-related arc magmatism, with a strong alkalic geochemical signature — and hosts Cadia-Ridgeway, North Parkes and Cowal, among other world-class deposits.

The key point is that the alkalic affinity of the porphyry systems in the Macquarie Arc produces deposits with unusually high gold-to-copper ratios — more gold per tonne than typical porphyries.

The recognition of alkalic porphyry signatures at the Piket licence last month is therefore highly significant.

And ignored.

Endeavour JV

On the corporate side, the November 2025 Earn-In and Joint Venture with Endeavour Exploration — subsidiary of Endeavour Mining — is the cornerstone of East Star’s gold strategy.

Endeavour is one of the most accomplished gold explorers and mine builders in the world.

From 2014 to 2024, the company built five large capital projects in West Africa alone, all on budget and on schedule, extending an exceptional track record of delivery.

Over the five years to 2025, Endeavour’s exploration team delivered over 10 million ounces of indicated resource discoveries at a discovery cost below $25 per ounce, completing the first five-year discovery target, and has now set a new target of 12-15 million ounces of additional discoveries.

Endeavour’s discovery of Tanda-Iguela in Côte d’Ivoire, where it delineated a 4.5 million ounce indicated resource at 1.97 grams per tonne, is described as one of the most significant gold discoveries made in West Africa over the last decade.

The major targets a discovery cost of below $40 per ounce and is targeting two to three Tier 1 greenfield projects over the next five years, with over 80 exploration targets across 4 new gold provinces currently in its pipeline.

Kazakhstan — with its vast underexplored terrain in a geologically proven belt — fits well into Endeavour’s strategy of identifying new gold provinces before the broader market does.

The fact that Endeavour has committed to spend over $25 million exploring in Kazakhstan alongside East Star is one of the world’s best gold finders saying they believe that there is something of genuine scale here, and are willing to put serious money behind finding it.

The deal terms:

Endeavour earns 51% by investing $5 million within two years, earns 70% by investing an additional $20 million over three years, and earns 80% by funding and completing a Pre-Feasibility Study.

East Star retains 20% on full earn-in and manages the JV through the initial phase, receiving management fees. Milestone payments are due from Endeavour upon achievement of a maiden JORC resource and a maiden PFS — providing additional cash flow to East Star on discovery.

Following the $25 million JVA, Endeavour made a £1.8 million direct strategic investment in East Star in December 2025: £96,600 in immediate shares and £1.711 million as an unsecured convertible loan note at a conversion price of 2.3p per share.

The CLN converted in February 2026 at the agreed price, bringing Endeavour’s total holding to 14.3% of the enlarged share capital. Endeavour also received the right to appoint one board director for as long as it holds 10% or more of the company — hence the May 2026 appointment of Sonia Scarselli.

Again, she’s not there as a silent partner - but as an adviser and potential part operator.

Money aside, the credibility these names bring - both Endeavour as a corporate and Sonia individually - are worth their weight in gold themselves.

Snowy Gold Target

The Snowy licence in Karaganda is arguably East Star’s most advanced gold target - and the one that has received the most exploration attention to date.

The project area centres on a 4-kilometre by 1-kilometre gold/silver soil anomaly, identified through geochemical sampling and positioned between historic high-grade gold mines.

Initial exploration focused on a pyrophyllite anomaly at the western end of the system — a high-sulphidation alteration indicator.

As field mapping and rock chip sampling advanced, the interpretation shifted toward a low-sulphidation epithermal model, which better explains the style of veining and alteration observed at surface.

For those lacking the context - low-sulphidation epithermal systems are the style responsible for Round Mountain, Silicon/Merlin, Fruta del Norte and Pajingo. They tend to be larger, more open-pittable deposits than their high-sulphidation counterparts (however, they can also be structurally controlled vein systems requiring underground mining).

The key physical characteristics of the Snowy system observed at surface are all hallmarks of low-sulphidation epithermal mineralisation.

Quartz veins with gold and very low base metal content — the classic low-sulphidation signature — have been identified at surface returning results up to 1.44gpt gold, with numerous samples above 0.2gpt.

Silver accompanies the gold at all sample sites (up to 2.86gpt), as expected. The veins have been traced along strike for 200 metres east-west, dipping steeply to the north at around 70 degrees, cross-cutting the volcaniclastic stratigraphy at a steep angle.

The veins are composed of quartz with minor pyrite, and the gold grade is directly proportional to pyrite content — a clear indicator of an intact, oxidised system where the gold resides in sulphide-hosted form.

The geological architecture is particularly exciting.

Low-sulphidation epithermal gold deposits typically have their highest grades and greatest concentrations of precious metals in the ‘boiling zone’ — the depth interval where ascending hydrothermal fluids, rising along structural conduits, encounter a decrease in confining pressure and begin to boil.

This boiling drives phase separation, which destabilises gold complexes in solution and forces gold to precipitate.

At Snowy, the steeply dipping veins at surface point down-plunge into the subsurface along a trajectory that, given the volcaniclastic stratigraphy dipping at 30-40 degrees to the north, would intersect a more permeable volcaniclastic layer at depth — which is exactly the configuration that geologists look for when targeting the boiling zone.

The hyperspectral data adds further important perspective. The Snowy alteration system shows a pyrophyllite anomaly at the western end, transitioning to high aluminium-hydroxyl sericite along the northern strike and low Al-OH sericite along the southern strike hosting the Eastern Target.

The contrast between high and low Al-OH sericite is interpreted by the company as marking a stratigraphic contact between volcaniclastic units — a permeable horizon that could host a disseminated or stockwork ore body in addition to, or connecting to, the vein system.

IP survey results are expected this month, and was perfectly calibrated for this target.

Because gold grade is proportional to pyrite content, and because IP chargeability maps the distribution of disseminated sulphides in the subsurface, a coherent chargeability anomaly would directly illuminate where pyrite — and therefore gold — concentrations are greatest at depth.

If the survey returns a compelling chargeable anomaly associated with the resistivity signature of the quartz vein system, my guess would be that Snowy moves immediately to drill-ready status.

At current gold prices, any drill intersection confirming gold mineralisation at depth within this system would be catalytic.

Piket: Porphyry Discovery

The Piket licence, awarded in November 2025 and located approximately 80 kilometres south of Karaganda, is the most geologically significant development from East Star’s gold portfolio in 2026.

Last month’s RNS was materially underappreciated by the market at the time of release.

East Star’s geological team, working the Piket licence through the 2025 field season, identified an advanced argillic alteration system extending 8 kilometres in strike by 3 kilometres in width — a very large hydrothermal footprint.

Within this system, at the Symbyl 2 Prospect, they found intense quartz-pyrophyllite-alunite alteration, evidence of oxidised sulphides and hematite-bearing veins, and minor porphyry-style ‘A’ veins — characteristic early-stage quartz veins form in the potassic core of porphyry systems.

These A-veins, overprinted by advanced argillic alteration, indicate that the porphyry system has been telescoped by later epithermal activity, with the lithocap alteration partially obscuring but not destroying the porphyry signal below.

Soil geochemistry at Symbyl 2 defined a 2 kilometre by 2 kilometre multi-element anomaly with gold values up to 0.2gpt alongside elevated molybdenum, bismuth, tin and tungsten.

These metals are among the highest-level indicators of fertile porphyry systems — they are the elements that concentrate in lithocaps directly above porphyry ore bodies. Their presence in high concentrations, spatially associated with the intensely altered lithocap, is as close to a direct fingerprint of a buried porphyry as surface geochemistry can provide.

Which is exciting.

Approximately 5 kilometres east of the main alteration corridor, low-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver veins were also identified.

These veins, which were explored by Soviet geologists, are not themselves economic. But their presence close to the main lithocap confirms two things of critical importance: first, that the broader district has undergone gold-bearing hydrothermal activity, and second, that the upper epithermal levels of the system have been preserved.

The preservation argument is crucial in porphyry exploration because it indicates that the erosion level of the system is appropriate for the porphyry target to be present at accessible depths.

The geological context at Piket is now understood to be an alkalic intrusive system — the field mapping has confirmed monzonitic intrusions with classic alkalic alteration assemblages including hematite-dusted potassium feldspar (red rock alteration) and epidote-chlorite alteration in hornblende-bearing rocks.

The alkalic signature is the geological equivalent of a very bright beacon for porphyry explorers. Alkalic copper-gold porphyry systems, of which the Macquarie Arc deposits are the type examples, tend to be gold-rich relative to typical calc-alkaline porphyries.

Cadia-Ridgeway, the benchmark, has grades around 0.17% copper and 0.67gpt gold over enormous tonnages — the gold component is what makes it one of the world’s most valuable deposits. Critically, this alkalic affinity had, prior to East Star’s work at Piket, been entirely unrecognised in Kazakhstan.

East Star and its geological team has potentially identified a new metallogenic style in a country that was already one of the world’s most mineral-rich.

Next steps at Piket include detailed mapping and systematic sampling of Soviet trench material at Symbyl 2, plus additional rock chip sampling over the defined geochemical anomalies.

The goal is to advance Symbyl 2 to drill-ready status during the 2026 field season - this will take time, but they haev the luxury of time given the strength of rest of the portfolio.

Judzha: Resolved

The Judzha project, the third of the three porphyry licences awarded in November 2025, has been identified as unfertile and the licence is being relinquished.

That’s exploration for you.

Some win, some don’t.

2026 Work Programme

The 2026 work programme is very well funded, and that funding comes almost entirely from external sources.

From Endeavour’s JV: $2.3 million for field work on the gold targets, commencing in 2026 under the JV structure, managed by East Star and funded by Endeavour.

From the Xinhai JV: $1 million toward the Verkhuba feasibility study progression, funded by Xinhai with resource definition drilling targeting commencement by June 2026.

From East Star’s own balance sheet (funded through the 2025 capital raises): advancement of permitting for the Rulikha deposit, geochemistry and geophysics on the three porphyry lithocap targets, ground electromagnetic surveys on the two VMS targets (Rulikha North and Talovskoye), and follow-up drilling on the VMS targets if the EM results are positive.

The aggregate of externally funded exploration activity in 2026 — the Endeavour and Xinhai programmes — totals over $3 million, all of which benefits East Star’s asset values with no cash cost to the listed company.

The IP survey results from Snowy are expected imminently. The Piket trench sampling programme is expected in the 2026 field season. Verkhuba drilling is underway or imminent. The Rulikha ground EM is planned.

By the end of 2026, East Star is likely to have materially de-risked or advanced every one of its key assets.

Investment Case Summed Up

The investment case for East Star resolves to three components: near-term copper production at no cost, significant copper exploration upside, and a gold exploration programme with genuine Tier 1 potential backed by one of the world’s best gold explorers at current record gold prices.

The near-term copper production component is the most defensible. Verkhuba has a JORC resource of 20.3 million tonnes. It is being developed to production by a global EPC contractor at no cost to East Star. The production economics at current copper prices are highly favourable.

East Star retains 30% of the producing mine — and 30% of 10,000-plus tonnes per annum of copper equivalent at $10,000-plus per tonne is a massive revenue stream.

Tens of millions, every year.

(Yes before AISC and tax - but remember lowest AISC in world).

The copper exploration optionality — primarily Rulikha, with its Exploration Target of up to 23 million tonnes at 2.4% copper equivalent — adds very significant potential upside to the copper story at zero dilution to East Star shareholders, since it’s 100% owned and not subject to any farm-out or earn-in.

The gold programme is the highest-risk, highest-reward component.

Neither Snowy nor Piket has been drilled but both have surface evidence of large, fertile systems. The IP survey results from Snowy and the trench sampling at Piket will be the next decisive data points.

There are obvious risks - but risk is comparative. Compare the circa £20 million market cap against the potential upside - and you’ll not find better risk profiling elsewhere.

Blue Sky Potential?

There is clearly a version of the East Star story that plays out modestly — Verkhuba gets built and produces steady copper royalties, Rulikha proves up to the lower end of the Exploration Target, and Snowy turns out to be a nice but not enormous gold system.

That version is still a very good outcome.

But there is another version.

Rulikha converts to a JORC Resource at or near its upper limit. The Rulikha North EM programme identifies a discrete massive sulphide conductor that drilling then intersects at high grade. The IP survey at Snowy identifies a compelling chargeable anomaly that, when drilled, confirms a boiling zone at depth hosting genuine economic gold grades over significant widths. The Piket trench sampling at Symbyl 2 confirms gold and pathfinder anomalism at sufficient scale and intensity to justify a drilling programme.

Endeavour brings its full geological capability and financial commitment to bear on a Kazakhstan gold province that turns out to be as fertile as its surface expression suggests.

A Tier 1 deposit — measured in millions of ounces — gets outlined in a country where the majors are already searching but where nobody has yet drilled the right target in the right place with the right model.

That version is possible. The geology supports it. The partners support it. The commodity environment supports it.

The country supports it.

Walker put it simply in the company’s closing presentation slide:

‘There are few places in the world where a western mineral framework meets low operating costs and a progressive attitude towards developing resource projects. East Star has already demonstrated efficient exploration success and now has the capability to discover multiple Tier-1 deposits.’

He is not wrong.

The question, as always in junior mining, is timing and luck. Execution risk, geological risk and junior resource risk is still present and pretending they’re not would be dishonest.

But the foundations are as solid as this sector gets.